For more than a decade, this attractive single-volume reference has been the most informative and user-friendly dictionary of ancient Egypt available. The new edition features a completely revised text, hundreds of illustrations in full color and more than 600 up-to-date alphabetical entries that range from agriculture to Zawiyet-el-Mayitin. In short, this excellent work provides concise information on all aspects of Egypt during the pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods. Each entry is followed by a bibliography, allowing readers to pursue subjects in greater detail. Thoroughly indexed and cross-referenced, this is an indispensible source for researchers, students and anyone with an interest in the ancient world.

Tucson Citizen

This is a superb book. Wilkinson has brought together some of the current leading Egyptologists to produce a single volume work that introduces the reader to the methods and theories used in the study of ancient Egypt. All aspects of Egyptology are covered from the Egyptian language and medical research to the way archaeologists survey sites and the conservation of artefacts. The book is organized thematically into four parts (approaches, monuments, art and artifacts, and texts), with each part comprising three chapters. Wonderfully illustrated, this book will make excellent reading for students of the ancient world and the interested public.

The volume opens and closes with succinct essays by the editor on the past, current, and future status of Egyptological research. Wilkinson introduces the reader to the reality of modern Egyptological practice and research, pointing out that the latter part of the twentieth century has seen the study of Egyptology benefit from broader methods of scholarship taken from the arts and humanities, and the natural and medical sciences. Egyptology is now very much an interdisciplinary field.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

A new biography of the Macedonian ruler attempts to debunk many myths surrounding her legacy. Egyptologist Tyldesley (Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered, 2006, etc.) digs deeply into Cleopatra’s life, piecing together a unique portrait of her successes and failures.

Many biographers focus too much on Cleopatra’s reputation as a temptress, but Tyldesley gamely analyzes her politically astute nature at work against the backdrop of the bloody, brutal times in which she operated. In chronological fashion, the author covers the major historical issues surrounding Cleopatra, but she wisely avoids lingering too long on well-traveled ground. Tyldesley examines many of the burning questions that continue to puzzle historians – Was she black? Did she marry her brother? Was she beautiful or ugly? – and that have helped create such a beguiling picture of the queen.

Professor Panu Rajala has just published an 800 plus biography called Unio Mystica – The life and work of Mika Waltari, and this will be the subject of a lecture to be held at the British Museum in London on 16 October. According to Rajala, Waltari lived an unhealthy life of smoke, drinks and dangerous love affairs. Pessimistic in his tone, Mika Waltari nevertheless became very successful and died rich. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen had a profound effect on the then 14 year old Waltari, who never traveled to Egypt. His story of Sinuhe, based on an ancient Egyptian legend written on papyrus, was published in 1945 and became an instant bestseller.

At the lecture, the first Arabic translation of The Egyptian will be discussed by Professor Faruk Abu-Chacra, senior lecturer of Arabic languages at the University of Helsinki, and Richard Parkinson from the British Museum will reveal the original poem on which the novel was based.

Helsinki Times